The Raleigh Planning Commission’s agenda for today’s meeting contains some new details worth sharing on the blog. The West Apartments is up for approval and may one day bring about 150 apartments to West Street in Glenwood South. The building, being designed by the same JDavis Architects that brought us the West at North tower, will sit adjacent to the same building you see in the picture above. You can see from the site map that the new building will remove the sales office along Harrington Street and the rest of the surface parking in the surrounding lot.

Screenshot from Google Maps

There’s nothing too exciting in the agenda as the 85′ tower will consist of two levels of parking (one above and one below ground) and five floors of residential. No rendering is included. The tower isn’t taking out anything anyone might miss but is bringing some retail space with it. The new development therefore brings upgraded 14′ sidewalks to West and Harrington Street. While not a requirement, 10 bicycle spaces will be provided. Check the agenda for floorplans also.

Private development is moving closer and closer to the county’s land along Capital Boulevard and while it will probably take awhile, I’m still hoping for Tucker Street to extend to the east towards Capital one day. I hope to see the east side of Glenwood South become a grid again so the neighborhood has room to grow.

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Should be a good project to add residential density to Glenwood South and to add density to a nearby transit stop.

I agree that a grid street layout would improve the walkability and development of the area; however, that would be my second option. My first option would be for everything to be leveled from these apartments to Peace St and to build a soccer/multi-use stadium in this area.

If we don’t do something big to distinguish our city, we will keep losing jobs to Charlotte who are adding numerous amenities to their downtown to lure companies and residents.

“My first option would be for everything to be leveled from these apartments to Peace St and to build a soccer/multi-use stadium in this area.”

It’s a bit terrifying that anyone would think this to be a remotely sensible idea. I am not against a stadium or arena downtown, but it would have to be on the fringe in an underdeveloped area. You’re talking about annihilating part of one of the most vibrant and developmentally booming neighborhoods in downtown to put in something that would be a dead zone on most days. This is anecdotal, but I would certainly bet the farm on neighborhoods like Glenwood South doing more to lure companies and residents than a stadium.

Not really worth arguing about since it is highly unlikely, but we are talking about a comedy club, car wash, bar, boutique clothing, camera shop and some half empty county govt buildings (Finch’s can stay). All 1 story, most are severely aged buildings. Vibrant? Developmentally booming? The place is a dead zone.

But you will have your wish. All of that will stay.

Greensboro, Winston, Charlotte all have or are developing stadiums in their downtowns and are seeing surrounding development. Just figured Raleigh could follow the successful model and thought this was the best location. Whoops.

This very project proves that it is not a dead zone. Development is naturally spreading north to Peace Street. Like I said, I don’t think a downtown sports venue is a bad idea (and have supported it multiple times here in the past), but I think that’s a poor location for it and would not be the best use of the land.

Arenas and stadiums are a result of new development and a rise in economic activity, not the other way around. An area must be large enough and robust enough to absorb what comes with a large sports venue, the sudden rise and drop of traffic and the effects it has on the area when idle.

If the infrastructure can’t handle the traffic then the need for easy parking goes way up. If an arena is built in an urban area and can’t handle the sudden flow of traffic, the available land becomes more valuable for parking. Lots and decks then pop up. Look at Bank of America stadium and TWC arena in Charlotte, both surrounded by blocks and blocks dedicated to parking. If that’s what people want, fine, but put me in the column for being against it for a future Raleigh.

When the sports venue sits idle, all that parking becomes idle as well. That’s a lot of valuable land being used for nothing.

The Verizon Center in Washington, DC is a model of what urban areas should strive for. On the idle nights, 7th Street continues to see restaurant and tourist activities because the area is robust enough to keep the economic activity moving. On busy nights, with games, conventions, or any other events, the area has the transit, the streets, the infrastructure in place to move people in and out. It can absorb it.

Downtown Raleigh can’t absorb a sports venue at this point in time and many more things need to happen before it can. West Raleigh can.

Agree with Leo. I have been on 7th Street a few times, there is activity around that arena. Charlotte football stadium is not a pleasant experience (it is a dead zone when there is not a game) and the arena is laughable when there is not a game or event (have to add: noone supports that NBA team when there is a game, cannot believe the NBA keeps a team with such a pathetic fan base – but that is fine, could care less about the NBA)

Soccer stadium – are we kidding, don’t waste the downtown space on a soccer stadium, talk about boring!!!!!!!
A PNC Arena is what is NEEDED Downtown for all events (On the South side of town to redevelop that eysore).
cannot believe there are NO discussions about an arena and a date to break ground. This is LONG overdue!!!!
Current arena is already out dated (narrow walkways, small bathrooms, not enough concessions, The Eye Store is much to small, etc.). Out dated due to not investing enough money to begin with in the project. The next arena needs to be a class A facility, that will bring more development downtown as people are at events year round

By the way, I lived in DC for a while so I assumed it went without saying that a 24-7 lively, mixed-use district should be a requirement with a downtown stadium/arena. (All the more reason to put it adjacent to Glenwood South entertainment district in my opinion.)

New arena long overdue? The PNC Arena is only 13 years old and has undergone renovations and improvements about every 2-3 years.

Regarding use, yes an outdoor stadium would not be used as much as an arena, however, eventually the city will expand the convention center and the ‘temporary’ amphitheater will be destroyed. A stadium could double as an amphitheater to retain that business.

Anyway, sorry to get everyone off topic. I remain convinced it would be a smart decision and extremely beneficial to the city and downtown. Oh well, we can go back to dreaming small.

Anyway, regarding this post: great to see more apartments in the works! Can I hope for a grocery store development in this general area without major conflict? Possibly at the greyhound station site once they relocate to Union Station?

First, Raleigh is NOT losing jobs to charlotte. In fact, the Raleigh are outpaces ‘charlotte, usa’ on virtually every measure, job growth, unemploymnet(lowest in NC), wages, population growth, over 77 languages spoken (7X charlotte, usa).

The only thing Raleigh doesn’t outpace ‘charlotte, usa’ on is insecure narcissim.

This said, the idea of a downtown sports facility is very much something the City must move forward on soon. We missed a huge opportunity with the ESA/RBC/PNC/ABC123 arena, putting it in a dead parking lot.

As much as i do not like soccer, it is the most international sport around, has a vibrant fan base and an outdoor facility could support Major league lacrosse, concerts, etc. in addition to an MLS franchise.

“Current arena is already out dated (narrow walkways, small bathrooms, not enough concessions, The Eye Store is much to small, etc.). ”

Having been to a lot of arenas (Raleigh, Charlotte, Minnesota, Buffalo, Washington, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, MSG, Nassau, Newark, Montreal), PNC actually does quite well in all of these categories, particularly the wide concourses. If you think the concourses there are narrow, prepared to get annoyed if a downtown venue is ever built, because every arena that I have been to in an urban setting has very narrow concourses due to having to really sandwich the arena into a smaller plot of land than in a suburban setting.

Agreed on Verizon Center. It doesn’t even stand out as an arena because there is so much retail wrapping the building not to mention a transit hub underneath. Unfortunately it seems to be the exception rather than the rule.

The people who live on the other side of Peace St (not to mention those who live in Glenwood South) aren’t going to get on board with something like a stadium in this area… I think it’s probably a silly argument to claim that an arena will add more activity than high-density residential. This east end of Glenwood South is going to be a big growth area in the near future, especially once the Peace Street Bridge is finished and developers know what the new street patterns will be.

Steve, who says that a stadium and high-density residential are mutually exclusive? Why not have both? And why not surround a stadium with high-density residential and offices, shops, restaurants, a grocery store, a movie theater, and parks? Not a ground-breaking idea.

Raleigh needs to get it together! Charlotte is becoming the next city to get on the map… democratic convention and now talk of the super bowl is really good to hear but what is Raleigh doing, honestly? The problem with Raleigh is it doesn’t even care about doing more city like things instead of all this neighborhood friendly stuff! The light rail should have been here by now and mass transit needs a serious upgrade here. How is it that Durham has better bus service than Raleigh and it is half the size! There are too many people and city leaders who whine like pussies anytime Raleigh does something to try and grow up. I mean honestly Raleigh’s skyline is literally almost the same as it was 20 years ago. Pnc is the only Skyscraper we have built in forever. If it is a grocery store, car dealership or a shopping center than that is welcomed here but anything that has a serious impact like a downtown arena, light rail, skyscraper, or vibrant nightlife choices is frowned on here! Cmon Raleigh do something different for a change!

You lost all credibility, and I stress all credibility with the “vibrant nightlife choices” finale to your rant. Downtown Raleigh needs retail, and as the economy turns the skyscrapers will come. You must not have notices the new 300 million dollar courthouse, or the Marriott, or the SECU building when glancing at that 20 year old skyline?

hackles 10 you are a joke if you honestly believe that the courthouse and the SECU is a skyscraper… you must have lived in Raleigh all your life to think that. Raleigh has no real skyscrapers only high rises and there are only three of them. It is so funny how Raleigh folk get so offended when people say their city sucks. Get it together then! And by the way I still honestly don’t think the skyscrapers will come because Raleigh doesn’t even have the strong business atmosphere in downtown its all in the RTP. The truth hurts buddy!

I think the skyline gets over emphasized by a lot of people. Sure, it’s good for photography and makes downtown look great from the burbs, but when I think about my favorite places in cities that I have visited, they are pretty much all mid-rise neighborhoods. A skyscraper is visually impressive, but I think I would take multiple 4 or 5 story developments over a skyscraper most of the time. There is a certain point vertically where I think buildings stop adding to street level vibrancy and may even start detracting from it.

Mike, I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive. However, I was talking about the site above and similar sites downtown that people are/were talking about using for an arena. These sites are so small that having anything other than the stadium isn’t spatially possible. Though I don’t really understand the arguments about arenas creating vibrancy. There are lots of arenas that are highly vibrant for certain events, but the idea that they’re 12-month centers of activity is a little silly. The most active areas of any city are places that draw people daily or at least weekly. Nobody would argue that Yankee Stadium or Madison Square Garden is the most active area of New York or even that the arena is the most active area of a college campus. If we’re talking about Glenwood South, I think the idea of building an arena is basically a non-starter, not least of all because of the Eminent Domain suits that would consume the dozens of property owners in the area and staunch resistance the people in Cameron Park, Glenwood and other neighborhoods would put up.

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